Book Review - This Is Why I Resist: Don't Define My Black Identity By Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu

As of the time of writing this review it is 2021, one year after the murder of George Floyd, three years after the Windrush scandal. Four years after the Grenfell tower fire, ten years after the murder of Mark Duggan, and twenty-eight years after the murder of Stephen Lawrence. While progress towards equality and justice has been made, it is minimal at best and clearly there is a long way to go no matter what certain government reports might say to the contrary. The fight for true race equality and justice can feel like a never ending slog. The resistance against white supremacy can feel like it’s a case of one step forward two steps back. This Is Why I Resist: Don’t Define My Black Identity by Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu is a call to arms and an important reminder of why resistance is still a necessity despite how unmovable white supremacy seems to be.

If I were asked to sum up This Is Why I Resist in one word it would be uncompromising. There are no half measures here, there is no hand holding, or kid gloves for the more fragile white people who may be reading. This is not a book which asks white people to do more to dismantle racism and white supremacy. This is a book which demands white people do more to dismantle racism and white supremacy. As a white person reading this book it makes for uncomfortable, and difficult reading at times, but it is also refreshing in how blunt and direct it is. Throughout the book Mos-Shogbamimu tells it as it is. There are no watered down more politically correct terms here like “racially charged”, or “unconscious bias”. The result makes for a punch to the gut, and a powerful call to action for the reader which refuses to be ignored, or dismissed.

While this book acts as a wakeup call to all who read it, this is especially the case for white moderates, and centrists. White moderates, and centrists are defined here as white people who are not overtly racist themselves, and who may even recognise that they have white privilege, but who do not actually do anything to challenge racism or white supremacy as they benefit from it. Repeatedly Mos-Shogbamimu makes it clear that achieving true equality will take serious commitment and work from white people as well as people of colour and that apathy, and complacency is the same as complicity with racism and white supremacy. There is a certain degree of tiredness in the writing as it is clear this is not the first time Mos-Shogbamimu has had to explain these concepts. She describes her appearances on UK TV when talking about the racism surrounding Megan Markle’s press coverage and the reactions she received from both other media personalities and from the public through twitter. There were demands for mountains of evidence of racism, only for that same evidence to be dismissed out of hand. As the novelist and social reformer Upton Sinclair puts it “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Mos-Shogbamimu shows that one of the more frustrating, and exhausting parts of discussing racism is that white people seem to have a different understanding of what racism is to a lot of people of colour in this country. It is an understanding which denies the lived experience and pain of many people of colour in the UK. This is one of the dangers of letting racists define racism, and is one this book rails against. There is a tendency among some to define racism as needing a nebulous kind of negative intent or hate behind it. This way the actions, and just as importantly the inactions of people who “don’t see race”, or “have no hate in their heart” do not count. Anything less than the most blatant acts of obvious racism are dismissed as being a misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. This book shows that such a narrow and in many instances self-serving definition is not fit for purpose and feeds the denial of, and in some cases wilful ignorance of institutional racism. Mos-Shogbamimu does not allow this ignorance to stand unchallenged going into detail on what institutional racism is and why it is so insidious. She asserts that racism is not dependant on intent but on the result. If something causes pain to, or has a disproportionally negative affect on people of colour then regardless of intent it is racist.

Mos-Shogbamimu also devotes a lot of time to exploring feminism, and more specifically the need for more intersectionality in feminism. She writes in detail about her experiences as a Black woman and feminist trying to navigate spaces which while nominally feminist do not always feel welcoming to her. Here as elsewhere in the book she writes about her personal experiences working with feminist organisations where she has been accused of being controlling, and dominating. These particular criticisms are significant as Mos-Shogbamimu denounces the angry black woman, and strong black woman stereotypes that still pervade society today. These stereotypes both limit and harm Black women by silencing them, and dismissing their concerns and pain. Mos-Shogbamimu writes about the importance of pushing back against them and refusing to be limited by them. She describes the tight rope she walks between being her authentic self, and not allowing herself to the stereotyped and placed in a box. The very act of her living her life in public as a Black woman is considered by some to be a political act. This is a level of scrutiny, and pressure that as a white man I have never experienced and will never fully understand. I do however greatly appreciate the insight this book has given me, and the greater perspective I now have for having read it.

This examination of feminism does not stop there. The book also places a microscope on the recent increase in anti-trans rhetoric within feminism in the UK under the guise of being “gender critical”. Mos-Shogbamimu shows the shift transphobia is making more towards mainstream feminism using JK Rowling, and her tweets as an example. As is the case elsewhere in the book there is no sugar coating here from Mos-Shogbamimu as she calls out this rise in transphobia as being the antithesis of true feminism which should be inclusive, and celebrate the differences in all women. She is critical of this anti-trans mindset rejecting the idea that trans women are in any way a threat to feminism. Intersectionality means recognising that a person can experience multiple kinds of oppression and that includes transphobia, and trans exclusion in feminism. She argues that anti-trans feminists who are also known as TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) are not true feminists at all and are in reality transphobes who have appropriated feminism in order to attack an already heavily marginalized group. She further asserts that the advocacy for women’s rights should not be limited to the narrow view of women that TERFs hold and should be inclusive of trans women too.

To conclude, this review could have been me agreeing with Dr Mos-Shogbamimu for 272 pages. As a white person writing this review I have given a lot of thought and consideration to the subjects Dr Mos-Shogbamimu addresses, particularly my white privilege. I will admit this is a simplification but in my opinion the root of white privilege is having the option to not know. It is the option to not know that institutional racism exists, or what it is. It is the option to not know that Black people have to teach their children what to do when stopped by police. It is the option to not know the amount of work and pain that goes into straightening Black hair to make it fit the Eurocentric view of “professional”. This is a kind of ignorance that Dr Mos-Shogbamimu dismantles over the course of her book. She addresses and tears down the defences white supremacy throws up which continuously go unchecked. This is a book which should be read by as many people as possible. A common refrain among many white people is that they want to be educated on racism. To those people, if they really are truly interested in learning with an open mind about the many facets of racism, and anti-racist work, this is definitely a book I would recommend.

You can buy this book here: https://tinyurl.com/j4xh4uyw